Quote:
Originally Posted by iggymcfly
Hmm, if only this had been addressed somewhere. Like the graphic which showed the Mavericks actually faced better defenses on average pre-trade before Rondo drove the Mavericks greatest of all-time offense off a cliff.
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Great. If you can arrange for the Mavs to play the average of the teams they face, this would mean something. The reality is they play some good teams and some bad teams and some average teams. Before the trade, we excelled against the bad and average. We still do. Before the trade, we sucked against the really good teams, and we still lose to them. But their star guards do not average career games against Rondo like they did before he got here.
Look at the 4 game losing streak. The only blowout was against Memphis, who we just beat the week before. The other losses were by 3, 4 and 5 points. Those games were all winnable, largely because no star guard scored over 20. D Rose 20, J Harden 17.
It does not matter how we do against the defensive average. If we get raped nightly by the likes of Harden and Westbrook and Curry, we go nowhere in the playoffs. That was a crisis the MBT faced and solved. We still have half a season to massage the offense. But we are better defensively. That does matter.
Its like arguing to bring back Nellie's Mavs. Hate all you want on the Little General. But he made everybody try on defense and that got us to the Finals, and laid the groundwork for the championship. You may not believe this, but Carlisle does. That's why we got Rondo. This is not the end of the process...it still close to the beginning.